March 2021 Newsletter
VOLUME 42, NUMBER 6 Formerly New York Sheet Music Society www.APSSinc.org MARCH 2021 indignities and racism. The Remarkable Nat King Cole Nat Cole was also very close to Jack Through the All-Encompassing Lens Benny and Perry Como. He was embraced by three presidents: Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy and Lyndon By Marilyn Lester of Will Friedwald Johnson. He sang at Kennedy’s inaugural If Will Friedwald were in a court of clubs to filling concert halls, and gala, which was produced by Sinatra, law pleading a case for the immense ultimately, stadiums. At a late 1940s who made sure to include three other greatness of Nat King Cole, he’d win a benefit for the Harlem YMCA, he filled people of color: Ella Fitzgerald, Harry unanimous “yes” verdict Belafonte and Mahalia hands down. In his February Jackson. Later, in Los 12 presentation, Straighten Up Angeles, Kennedy surprised and Fly Right: The Life And Cole by spontaneously Music of Nat King Cole, showing up at his house for Friedwald offered a tight and the coming-out cotillion of cogent presentation, filled one of his daughters. “It was a with visual goodies, including huge statement,” observed photos from the Cole Family’s Friedwald. personal collection. Nat Cole In matters of racial is a subject he clearly loves discrimination Cole and admires, and, who, he maintained his composure and says, is his favorite performer. his dignity. In his first film His recently released book Nat King Cole with Sombrero appearance, in 1943, in which about Cole, upon which this he sang and played piano, he program was based, was one he’d wanted the Savoy Ballroom with a remarkable was made to appear dressed as a railroad to write for many years.
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